‘Deadpool’ Refresher: What to Know Before Seeing ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

In the new “Deadpool & Wolverine,” two beloved superhero franchises will finally come together in a frenzy of irreverent jokes, gory action and Easter eggs. Drawing on decades of movie history and featuring a dizzying array of characters and references to past plots, it’s the kind of film that rewards longtime fans.

For those who haven’t seen the X-Men or Deadpool films in a while, here’s what you need to know before watching.

What’s Deadpool’s back story?

Before he got his own Deadpool movies, Ryan Reynolds debuted the character in the X-Men franchise, appearing in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” in 2009. The role didn’t go over well with fans — his mouth was sewn shut in the film — and Reynolds wanted a separate movie to explore the character more fully.

“Deadpool” (2016), the first of three films in the franchise, introduces Wade Wilson, a foul-mouthed mercenary who falls in love with a woman named Vanessa. After getting a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Wilson volunteers for a shadowy program that promises to heal him. There, he is tortured by the villainous Ajax until his body mutates and receives self-healing powers, similar to those possessed by Wolverine. Aided by an elderly sightless woman, Blind Al, and two other X-Men, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Deadpool eventually hunts down Ajax and reconciles with Vanessa.

His relationship with Vanessa is short-lived, however, as “Deadpool 2” (2018) opens with her being killed by one of Wilson’s old mercenary targets. Grieving her loss, he joins the X-Men and works to stop a time-traveling soldier named Cable from killing a young mutant. In that film’s mid-credits scene, Wade uses Cable’s time-traveling device to journey through the past, reversing the death of his friends and the murder of Vanessa.